How To Turn Cosplay Failure Into Cosplay Success

How to Turn Cosplay Failure into Cosplay Success

OR

How Not to Fail Miserably at Cosplaying and Not Even End Up Going to the Convention Because Your Costume is Still in Pieces on Your Friend’s Living Room Floor

The Team Sprocket & Friends at X-Con

Yes, you guessed it.  I set a ridiculous goal for myself and didn’t fulfill it.  The good thing is, you get to learn from my mistakes!  You’re allowed to laugh.  It’s okay.  Most of mine and Haleigh’s mistakes were stupid and definitely could have been avoided with some thinking, but in our defense, most of this was done late at night/early in the morning, without coffee.  Good luck to you guys, and please don’t make our mistakes.

Have enough time to complete your costume.

This is probably the most important thing.  I had this planned for months!  I was so excited to be cosplaying for the first time ever in my life, especially a character from Star Wars.  Unfortunately, this excitement didn’t last too long.  I didn’t know where to begin.  My thoughts went from “I’m-going-to-be-so-friggin’-hawt-in-this-costume” to “OMGPANICWTFDOIDOIDON’TEVENKNOWHOWTOSEW.”   Yeah, I don’t sew.  I enlisted the help of my lovely friend Haleigh, who owns a sewing machine and has a few years of cosplaying under her belt.  I found the material for my cloak by chance one day on the way to school.  I passed an awesome fabric store with a banner advertising a 50 – 75% Off sale on everything in the store.  I got some gorgeous navy material with a damask pattern for about $6 a yard.  Perfect.  Then we didn’t do anything for three weeks.  That brings us to:

Don’t procrastinate!

I am so bad at doing things.  I wait until the very last available second to even think about the task at hand.  I turn things in late.  I’m late for work/class.  I’m a procrastinator on all fronts.  You can easily see where this is going.   I got the material for my cloak early on, but didn’t do anything with it for forever.  About a week before I needed everything, I’m like “HEY, LET’S ACTUALLY DO THE REST OF MY COSTUME.”   Hah.  I got the materials to make my belt and my shirt, but couldn’t find fabric anywhere for the skirt.   Apparently no one in all of Myrtle Beach sells anything black.   Either that, or they’re really an upholstery store.  I had to order it from a webstore.  It hasn’t even gotten here yet, and the convention is already over!  Hopefully this will all be done by Halloween.

Make sure you pay attention!

It seems that in the midst of watching Barbie movies and Sailor Moon (I’m not kidding, you guys, we watched Barbie movies and Sailor Moon), Haleigh and I were so distracted that we made a huge mistake.  Always pay attention when you’re using scissors, kids.  We had a really great cloak pattern and we were on a roll!  We were getting so much done when we realized that we had two identical halves for each part of the cloak.   That would be great, except the fabric we were using was two sided.   We failed to realize this while cutting, and ended up facepalming.  A lot.  We fixed our mistakes by trimming around the edges of each piece, and taking the cloak down a few sizes (we saw mistakes coming, so we started out with an XL, and I would be a S/M normally), so we fixed it.   Avoid these things at all costs.

Make sure you’re equipment works.

Oh my.  This one.  We finished pinning my cloak and began to sew, when the machine started to loop and bunch.  It looked like a bird’s nest (and hey, this is actually called birdnesting).  We had no idea what to do.  The internet suggested cleaning things, but we didn’t really know what parts of the machine they were referencing or how to clean it, so we figured it was a bad idea to try (and inevitably fail).  Haleigh adjusted the tension, but nothing seemed to work.  Her stepmother is going to fix it soon.

These are all easily avoidable problems.  Really, they are.  I promise.

RECAP: Order everything months (in my case, years) ahead of time just in case, make things a few sizes larger (you can always take them in at the end), and don’t be upset about every mistake you make.  There is almost always something you can do to fix it.

Barriss Offee make-up, Mk. II

As for me, I’ve asked everyone that buys me things for a sewing machine for Christmas (someone is bound to buy me one), and I’ll probably take sewing “lessons” (I really mean watch Youtube videos about sewing), and I’m going to start making my own clothes (I promise that will never happen)!   My skirt material should be here soon, and I can borrow The Boyfriend’s grandma’s machine to make the skirt and finish the cloak, and hopefully I’ll be done with my costume by the end of the week.  At least I have my makeup down!

Do you have any cosplay tips, suggestions, or stories?  Please share them in the comments.